Tamil Nadu railway station's Hindi signboard defaced amid NEP row
The DMK has alleged that the three-language formula in the National Education Policy is a form of Hind-imposition by the BJP-led Centre
A group of pro-Tamil activists blackened the Hindi words written on a signboard in the Pollachi railway station in Tamil Nadu on Sunday, news agency PTI reported. The DMK-ruled state has been at loggerheads with the Centre, alleging Hindi imposition under the garb of National Education Policy 2020 (NEP).
In Pollachi, the activists painted black paint on the word “Pollachi Junction” written in Hindi.
A viral video showed a group of men applying black paint on the Hindi name while an RPF personnel confronted them and pointed out the lack of permission for their act.
Officials from the Southern Railway's Palakkad Division clarified later that the defaced name was restored. “RPF Pollachi identified the defaulters and registered a case under relevant provisions of the Railways Act and they will be prosecuted. The same was rectified immediately,” the Palghat Division of the Southern Railway said in a social media update.
TN vs Centre over Hindi ‘imposition’
The DMK has alleged that the Centre has denied funds for the school education department unless the government implements the National Education Policy. The party has said that the three-language formula in the new policy is a form of Hind-imposition by the BJP-led Centre, thus antithetical to the interests of the state and social justice.
DMK spokesperson TKS Elangovan accused the Centre of imposing religious ideas on the education system through the NEP. “First, the policy should be implemented in BJP-ruled states and improve their standards. The purpose of this policy is to impose religious ideas on the education system, which we will never allow and we will never allow Hindi,” he said.
Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had dismissed the state's concerns as “imaginary”.
“One point I want to re-emphasise is that the NEP is not recommending the imposition of any language on the respective students of a state. That means, in no way the NEP is recommending imposition of Hindi in Tamil Nadu,” Pradhan had asserted.
(With PTI inputs)
